Name the famous writer!

Strolling by the discard box in front of the local used bookstore, Powell’s, I spotted a copy of the 1953 Harvard College yearbook: a compilation of that year’s activities, sporting events, and so on, with a list of clubs and organizations—all accompanied by photos. I picked it up and took it home to see if I recognized anybody from that era, four years after I was born.

The “three seventeen” on the cover means that that was the 317th year since Harvard was founded in 1636.

Sure enough, there were lots of famous faculty, including Archibald MacLeish, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., and biologists I recognized, like Kirtley Mather, mentioned in this well-known essay by Steve Gould (read it!) And one of the young faculty members was Julian Schwinger, shown at lower left, posed at the blackboard. Schwinger, of course, won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1965, sharing it with Richard Feynman and Shinichiro Tomonaga. Four of his 73 (!) graduate students also won Nobel Prizes.

Maybe some of you can identify the formulae in Schwinger’s writings on the board.

I was amused at this photo of the Young Democrats club, looking at a picture of Adlai Stevenson as if he were God:

And finally, the quiz. Here’s a two-page spread of the undergraduate editors of the Harvard Lampoon, the College’s humor magazine. One of them went on to became a famous writer. Can you name him? I think this is pretty easy. (You can put your answers below, but if you want to guess on your own, don’t look at the comments.)

Think Rabbit and Couples…and more. We had dinner with Updike, and others, once in the 50s in Ipswich, Mass. I can see him in mind’s eye, but can’t recall any bon mots except that he railed against tasseled loafers. (Shoes, for you young things). He was friends with a mutual friend.

I first read The Poorhouse Fair, then all the Rabbit series, and couple of collections. Nothing after that (I’ll take suggestions). I fully admire his ability to transport and amuse. You have to compare Updike to John Cheever (Bullet Park) since they both captured the essence of 20th century life in America.

I’m not quite sure why, but I have enjoyed Updike’s short stories (and literary and art criticism) and some of his other novels much more than his Rabbit series, all of which I read back in the day. What a talented man!

A handy nudge in the ribs that it must be time to re-read the Rabbit books!

I recommend ‘Couples’, and I think I recall that ‘In the beauty of the lilies’ and ‘Roger’s version’ were quite good, although it’s eons since I read them. His memoir, ‘Self-Consciousness’, is pretty good as well. Some of his later novels (eg ‘Terrorist’) are less good. But yes, a great writer: his depictions of small-town Pennsylvania are wonderful.

Don’t know if you’ve ever read the New Yorker piece I linked to under #7 above, regarding Ted Williams’s last ballgame for the Red Sox. It’s been anthologized widely as one of the best American essays ever. No need to be a baseball fan to enjoy it.

I’m glad to know that Powell’s is still open. It seems like every time I visit Chicago there are fewer and fewer used book stores. My favorite, Bookworks, near Wrigley Field is closing in about five weeks. (After searching far and wide, that was the only place I could find a copy of Helena Cronin’s “The Ant and the Peacock”.) If you have time to head up North, you might want to check out their final sale.

Powell’s in Portland, OR continues to be a main draw for book lovers. Friends from MN visited recently and we went to Powell’s three times in two weeks. It was super busy every time. Oregon also is losing used book stores. Amazon has gotten into that business online with Thriftbooks and Abe Books (maybe more).
Daedalus and Hamilton’s (can’t remember the preceding initials) also sell used books either online or by catalog.

Adlai Stevenson. There was an article this week on Trump’s religion, which talked about the fact that he used to attend a church where Norman Vincent Peale — the author of The Power of Positive Thinking was minister. Peale blasted Stevenson at one point on abortion, and Stevenson quipped “I find the Apostle Paul appealing, but I find the Apostle Peale appalling.” Why can’t I vote for that man?

Where to start though? I’ve seen a few of the Rabbit(?) books lying around the house but specific recommendations would be welcome. Although I’m working through a couple of physics books atm too so they’ll come first. For some reason I don’t read as much non-fiction as I used to.

I recently started “Rabbit, Run,” but I gave up after about 30 pages; I just wasn’t in the mood. I’ll get back to it someday. I went on to read “The Reluctant Fundamentalist” by Mohsin Hamid. I highly recommend it. It is very short, very well written, and it made me re-think my position on what Sam Harris calls “The Narrative Narrative.” Then, because of Trump, I read “All The King’s Men” by Robert Penn Warren. That is a masterpiece of American literature. I cannot recommend it strongly enough. And now I just started “Middlemarch.” It is quite an intimidating book. I will eventually get back to Updike, but I think I want to make some progress on the works of Saul Bellow before I get back to Updike. So far I’ve only read “Henderson The Rain King.” Anyone got advice on which of “Herzog,” “Augie March,” or “Ravelstein” I should read next?

LOVED All the President’s Men. Recommend Augie March and Herzog. Haven’t read Henderson. Fwiw, Philip Roth’s Amerucan Pastoral and The Human Stain are brilliant. Currently reading a spectacular South African novel called Agaat.

Coincidentally just came back from seeing Ewan McGregor’s film (director and star) of American Pastoral at the Toronto International Film Festival. (Last night was the premiere). I highly recommend it. Very good screenplay and acting and apparently Philip Roth gave it two thumbs up. McGregor spoke for a while afterwards. There were a lot of young women there who had probably never heard of Roth and were kind of McGregor groupies, but I must say that in addition to his being very easy on the eyes, he did a bang-up job in his first directing role. Very glad to see that one of my favorite books was not botched when brought to the screen.

If you like Ewan McGregor, I highly recommend the mini-series Long Way Round, which follows Ewan and a friend on a motorcycle trip from London to New York, the long way. It’s great. McGregor seems like a good, nice guy.

There’s a third part to Roth’s trilogy containing Pastoral and Stain called I Married a Communist. This third one is not quite as brilliant as the first two. There is a very good oldish movie of The Human Stain with Anthony Hopkins and Nicole Kidman.

I’ve read The Reluctant Fundamentalist, but it was quite a while ago, before I began seriously reading about politics so I don’t know if my original impressions missed something subtle. I do remember finding it fairly compelling as a novel(I wouldn’t have finished it otherwise) but I also remember bridling a little at the slightly simplistic, anti-western tone. It was a while ago though.

I’ve just had a novel called My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante almost literally forced on me by the female members of my family, who have been raving about it in a most convincing fashion. I’m not far in though.

The last book I read that I really loved was about five or six months ago: The Third Policeman by Flann O’Brien, the Irish humourist/surrealist. It was mind-bendingly odd, funny and, eventually, deeply sad.

Flann’s a hoot!! Loved his At Swim-two-Birds. Have 3rd Policeman on my shelves as yet unread. I’ve read 2 of the Elena Ferrantes and have not loved them as much as I expected to (despite gaving studied in Italia and loving many things Italian). Will probably still finish the series…

I’ve not read At Swim Two Birds yet but The Third Policeman really impressed me. Although I have to say the ending makes the whole story come into focus in a remarkable way – without that I might’ve come away thinking the whole thing was funny but flimsy.

Ferrante’s atmospheric, and she’s good on the the weird, screwed up psyches of children, but I’m not massively drawn to either character yet. Seems like it might not be quite as interesting to me as it was to my female relatives. It’s very centred on female intuitions, fears and instincts, and the frightening intensity of female friendships, in a way that kind of shuts me out.

I’ve no idea how it got there, but At Swim Two Birds has been sitting on my bookshelf for years. I guess now I’ll have to move it from the section of “maybe I’ll read this someday” books, to the section of “I need to read this in the near future” books. That section just keeps growing, though.

Only two of his novels have been adapted to feature films and the 2nd (“Witches of Eastwick”) also inspired a shortlived 13-episode TV series. I only saw the movie of WofE and it’s pretty bad. (“Rabbit Run” was turned into a so-so middling movie in 1970.)

He’s a huge favorite of secular humanist Ian McKewan, although Updike was a (not at all evangelical) Christian and there’s a lot of discussion of theology in his novels. I suspect MacKewan’s fondness for Updike is as much because OF the way Updike discusses theology, not in spite of same.

I’ve never gotten around to reading Updike’s retelling of Hamlet from the point of view of Gertrude and Claudius. But it’s on my list.

Knowing Schwinger it was probably a cross section calculation, possibly a Green’s function (where you see the $/delta$). He did what Feynman did, but basically with the math. In many ways he is the father of Quantum Field Theory.

Whenever I am in Portland Oregon to visit family (I live in Australia), I require a visit to Powell’s. We get the train from near Boring, Oregon (sadly not an official geographic name now, although there is still a Boring, Oregon post office).
So far, Powell’s is my favourite bookshop worldwide.